The Naked and the Dead is a 1948 novel by Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer

Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...

. It was based on his experiences with the 112th Cavalry Regiment during the Philippines Campaign (1944–45) in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. It was later adapted into a film of the same name

The Naked and the Dead (film)

The Naked and the Dead is a 1958 widescreen film based on Norman Mailer's World War II novel The Naked and the Dead. Directed by Raoul Walsh and filmed in Panama the screenplay attributed to the Sanders Brothers adds a strip tease and larger action scenes to Mailer's original narrative...

 in 1958.

In 1998, the Modern Library

Modern Library

The Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...

 ranked The Naked and the Dead 51st on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Plot

Set on an island in the South Pacific

Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

 where the American Army under General Cummings is trying to drive out the Japanese, The Naked and the Dead focuses on a single reconnaissance platoon

Platoon

A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...

. The novel is split between alternating chapters depicting ongoing action on the island and retrospective chapters focusing on a particular character's personality and past. The Naked and the Dead contains several combat scenes and a great deal of description of Army protocol, as well as detailed descriptions of the many trials and agonies of the enlisted man. The novel deals with the difficulties of the campaign, the danger posed by the Japanese, the conflict between officers and regulars, each man's own internal conflicts and fears, and the aggression between squad members. Everyone, from the General down, has character flaws, and there are few depictions of lasting happy family life or of good male-female relations. Later in the book a former general's aide, Hearn, becomes the Lieutenant of the squad, to the ire of Croft, the ambitious Sergeant previously in command, and to the detriment of the men of the platoon.

The novel questions the competence and motives of high-ranking officers, as well as the integrity of each of the many men depicted. The men suffer physical hardship and even casualties, but there is little mourning or kindness. There is no mercy shown to the Japanese. Occasionally, individual soldiers show sparks of sensitivity or thoughtfulness.

The Naked and the Dead was Mailer's first published novel and is still his top ranked novel by sales; it established his reputation as a novelist and brought international recognition.

"Fug"

The publishers of The Naked and the Dead persuaded Mailer to use the euphemism

Euphemism

A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...

 "fug" in lieu of "fuck" in his novel. Mailer's version of a subsequent incident follows:

"...The word has been a source of great embarrassment to me over the years because, you know, Tallulah Bankhead's press agent, many years ago, got a story in the papers which went...'Oh, hello, you're Norman Mailer,' said Tallulah Bankhead allegedly, 'You're the young man that doesn't know how to spell...' You know, the four-letter word was indicated with all sorts of asterisks... I thought she [Bankhead] should have hired a publicity man who had a better sense of fair play." (1968 Panel Discussion, CBLT-TV, Toronto, moderated by Robert Fulford) From "Conversations with Norman Mailer", 1988. Edited by J. Michael Lennon.

The band The Fugs

The Fugs

The Fugs are a band formed in New York in late 1964 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders...

 took their name from this word.

The incident is mentioned in John Green

John Green

John Willison Green is a retired Canadian journalist and a leading researcher into the Bigfoot phenomenon. He is a graduate of both the University of British Columbia and Columbia University and has a database of more than 3000 sighting and track reports, leading some to affectionately refer to...

's An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines is a young adult novel by John Green. Released in 2006, it was a finalist for the Michael L. Printz Award.An appendix explaining some of the more complex equations Colin uses throughout the story was written by Daniel Biss, a close friend to Green.-Plot summary:Colin...

. Colin Singleton tells Lindsey Lee Wells about how he likes to read literary criticism after reading a book. He says that the publisher didn't want to publish it if it contained more "f-bombs" than regular bombs.